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Back Betting: Optimal Pair Splitting Strategy

By Arnold Snyder
(First published in Card Player, June 1999)
© 1999 Arnold Snyder

Many casinos outside the U.S., and a few inside, allow “back betting” by players who are not playing their own hands. Back betting is the practice of placing bets on the hands of other players at the table, whether or not you are seated at the table yourself.

Most casinos that allow back bets allow them only to the extent that the total amount bet on the hand does not exceed the table maximum. In other words, with a table maximum of $500, if the seated player is betting $100, back bets would be capped at $400.

Generally, most casinos that allow back bets also allow the seated player to make the strategy decisions on the hand. In practice, seated players will sometimes, but not always, defer this decision to a back bettor who has more money on the hand than the seated player.

Because pair splits and double downs require a player to put more money on the table, casinos that allow back betting usually must give back bettors the option of not placing more money on the table. This is due to practical considerations. If a seated player doubles or splits, and a back bettor on the hand doesn’t have the money, does the game stop? Does the casino tell the seated player he’s not allowed to double his bet since the back bettor can’t afford it?

With a pair split decision, if the back bettor does not put more money on the table, then the back bettor’s initial bet will all be played on one hand, and only the seated player’s money will be at risk on the second (and any third and fourth) split hands. This rule does allow back bettors to take advantage of some profitable opportunities not available to the seated player.

For example, when the seated player has a pair of eights versus a dealer high card, the back bettor can choose to play just one hand starting with a total of eight, instead of two. Obviously, an eight is not a great starting card when the dealer has a nine showing, so you don’t want to play two hands, but you’re also much better off starting with an eight than you are with a total of hard 16 (two eights unsplit).

The optimal back-betting split strategy will depend on whether the game is single-deck or multiple-deck, whether the dealer hits or stands on soft 17, whether or not doubling after splitting is allowed, and whether or not the European no-hole-card rule is in effect (i.e., dealer blackjack takes all on splits and doubles).

I’ll provide a down-and-dirty back betting pair-split strategy guide in this article, but if you are going to be playing extensively in back-betting games, then I’d advise you to get a copy of Stanford Wong’s Professional Blackjack. Wong never discusses back betting in his book, but his “Appendix E” charts show the expected value for every player hand versus every dealer upcard for most different rules and numbers of decks. With this information you can easily devise optimal back-betting strategy for any blackjack game you encounter.

These back-betting split strategies are often not intuitive, and they are quite different from regular pair splitting basic strategy. Let’s consider some of the back-betting strategies for pair splits in a shoe game, where the dealer stands on soft 17. Let’s also assume that the seated player is making all decisions and does not defer to you for advice. If the European no-hole-card rule is in effect, and if the seated player splits aces and tens against all dealer upcards, you should match his bet against all dealer upcards except the ten and ace.

If it seems crazy to you to split tens against sevens, eights and nines, you are right; you would win more money by keeping the hard 20 against every dealer up card. But if the seated player splits his tens, you too should put more money on the table. The reason is that, with the European no-hole-card rule, you’ve got a positive expectation on any hand that starts with a hard ten against every dealer up card except the ten and ace.

In other words, if you were controlling the hand, you would keep the twenty. But since you’re back betting, and the seated player has decided to split, you should go ahead and put more money on the table.

With a pair of nines, you would match his splits versus 2 through 8. With a pair of eights, you would match his splits versus 3 through 7 only. With sevens, match the splits only versus six. Never match the split when he splits a pair of sixes. If he’s stupid enough to split a pair of fours or fives, incredibly enough, you would match these splits versus a dealer six! If he splits twos or threes, match the splits only versus five and six.

A two-man team, consisting of a low-betting seated player and a high-betting back bettor, can use Wong’s charts to devise some very unique and advantageous split strategies. For example, consider the case of a pair of sevens versus a dealer nine. The best strategy for the seated player (hitting) has an expectation of -44%. This is a bad hand. If the seated player splits the sevens, however, and the back bettor doesn’t match the bet, the back bettor’s new starting total of hard 7 has an expectation of only -29%. So, if the seated player has a $10 bet, and the back bettor a $1000 bet, this is a very smart defensive play. ♠

Avoiding the Team Thief

By Pikachu
(From Blackjack Forum Volume XXVI #1, Winter 2007)
© 2007 Blackjack Forum

We join blackjack teams to make money—more money than we could make by ourselves. A thief on the team will hinder us in achieving that goal. A team doesn’t have to have a dozen players, separate investors, a team manual, or scheduled polygraph tests to be a team. If I agree to count down a shoe for another player to blast away at (the classic BP approach), we are working as a team. I team with other professionals, semi-pros, and recreational players on a daily basis. Sometimes I spot, BP, invest, consult, buy or sell juicy opportunities, or tag-team games with other players—all of this is team play, and all of it is vulnerable to theft. I hope to expose some of the methods that depraved individuals might use to steal from a team, and possible ways to keep your money out of the thief’s clutches.

Reputation

Gamblers have very little credibility beyond their reputations. I’m more inclined to work with someone who has a reputation for being honest and hard-working than with someone who has a reputation of being a thief. It’s important to keep in mind the source of rumors you might hear about a player. If someone I trust vouches for another player, I will believe that player to be honest. If someone I consider to be a scumbag vouches for another player, I probably won’t form any opinion about that player, but I may even think badly of him.

Before teaming with another player, ask people you trust what they know about him. If you don’t hear good things about that player, it might be better not to work with him. Never give your money to a total stranger (duh!).

Large Blackjack Teams

Playing in large teams can present a greater chance of being stolen from. If you join up with 7 other players, each of whom you are 95% sure won’t steal, you face a 30% chance that there is at least one thief in the group. If you join a team of this size you had better be sure that the players are a lot more trustworthy than that.

Large teams might also be playing for bigger stakes than smaller teams, which could lead to greater temptations for potential thieves. A person who would never consider stealing $200 from a team bank of $20,000 might consider taking $1000 from a $100,000 bank. That person might also be willing to take $200 from the $100,000 bank, feeling that the money is less likely to be missed.

Consider a two-man team, where each player puts up $10,000 to form a total team bank of $20,000. Each player will take 50% of the win and loss. A thief might feel confident that he could steal $200 from the bank each day without being noticed—this missing money could easily be accounted for by normal variance. Notice that the thief is, in effect, stealing $100 from his teammate and $100 from himself. The thief only gets to keep 50% of what he steals. The bank loses $200 but the thief only gains $100.

Next, consider a ten-man team. Each player puts in $10,000 to form a $100,000 bank. Each player has a 10% stake in the team. This team plays for higher stakes, so the thief decides that he can get away with stealing $1000 each day from the bank. Now, the thief is stealing $100 from each of his 9 teammates, and $100 from himself, for a gain of $900. The size of the team has increased by 5 times, and the thief’s win has increased by 9 times. Even if the thief wanted to play it safe and still only take $200 a day from the larger team, his gain would be $180 since he gains 90% of what he steals from the bank.

If the team’s results have been below expectation and cheating is suspected, there are 10 people who could potentially be stealing. Even after stealing, there’s a good chance the thief wouldn’t have the worst reported results (variance disguises the thief), and he may escape with his reputation intact.

Perhaps the team always works in pairs. This way everyone is watched and supervised by another player to make sure no stealing can take place. Perhaps one pair decides that they should work together to steal. Each can claim to the rest of the team that his partner is 100% honest with reporting results. Meanwhile they both pocket whatever they think they can get away with.

Thieves should be drawn to larger teams.

Ratholing

Ratholing is the process of taking chips off the table during a session and secreting them in pockets, jackets, purses, or wherever. This is done to help disguise the win and avoid attention from the pit or the eye. It has been my experience that a busy floor supervisor is more likely to detect a large pile of chips than a receding chip tray. (When the tray runs out of chips altogether the dealer will typically alert the floor). Ratholing is generally a beneficial practice when employed by a solo player.

Ratholing might also disguise the win from teammates. After all, it is difficult to watch a teammate all the time and keep track of how much he might be ratholing throughout a session.

Some teams have rules against ratholing. This way a player can count or estimate how many chips another player has in front of him and know exactly how much that player is ahead or behind. If a player is spotted ratholing in such a situation then he must be stealing.

Counting the Rack

When spotting, I’ve gotten into the habit of counting the rack before the BP comes to the table and after he leaves. This means looking at how many chips of each denomination are in the dealer’s tray. I normally won’t bother with the red and green chips. If the BP manages to steal $30 from me, oh well. I will typically keep track of how many black, purple, and yellow chips are in the rack.

This isn’t as hard as it sounds. The dealer should have each stack of 20 chips marked off, either with plastic lammers or $1 chips. If there aren’t enough chips to make a complete stack of 20, the dealer will mark the chips in a different fashion. Normally they will mark groups of five black chips, and groups of four purple chips. This is done so the floor person can easily count the rack, which they will typically do every hour or two depending on the action at the table and the casino protocol.

The more crowded the table is, the more difficult keeping an accurate count becomes. When other players color up or down at the table I have to modify my starting chip count to compensate. I also have to keep track of my BP’s cash and foreign chip buy-ins. During a busy session or at a high minimum table it may become too difficult to keep track of the black chips, and I just have to accept that the BP could potentially be stealing $100 chips.

In general, this method is very reliable for tracking a BP’s wins and losses. On the occasions that I have multiple BPs, I will just lump their total win/loss together. If their total reported results don’t jibe with my rack-counting, I know that at least one of them is stealing (or I made a mistake), and I could investigate further in the future.

Unscheduled Freerolls

Sometimes the situation arises where it is unclear whether a player is playing on his own, or as part of the team. If you notice this happening a lot to a teammate, there might be a problem. The first thing to do is to set out some rules to make the situation less ambiguous. Perhaps a player will declare to the rest of the team that a chop is starting, and all results from all players will be split until it is declared that the chop is ending.

If situations continue to occur where it is unclear whether a chop is in progress, one player may be stealing. If these situations tend to end with the player playing on his own when he wins, and playing for the team when he loses, he is probably taking an unscheduled freeroll. That means he is stealing.

The thief might not even worry about the ambiguity in the situation. He could sneak out to the casino while his teammates are sleeping and play (or even gamble!). Wins are kept a secret (and pocketed) and losses are reported (and split with the team).

The best way to avoid unscheduled freerolls is to make the rules very clear about which activities at which times are part of the teams’ results. For example, when waiting for a game to clear out I might play video poker or live poker. It has been discussed among my teammates that this action is on my own, just as I don’t claim a part of their wins and losses when they play machines or poker. On the rare occasion that our poker activities are included in a team chop we are always very clear about that point before a session starts.

Changing the Deal

Suppose I chose to invest in another player. I find a good opportunity for him to play, perhaps a nice promotion, in a remote location. We make the agreement that I get 50% of the wins and losses on the promotion and the rest of his activities are his alone. The player goes off on his trip and when he returns he informs me that the deal has changed. He has decided that 50% is unfair, and that my cut should be 30%. Also, he’s not sure what portion of his result came from the promo, and what portion came from playing poker. And, he’s a bit hazy about how much he may have spent on personal expenses.

Is this player stealing from me, or is he just irresponsible? If he had come back from the trip and had perfect records but informed me that I would only get 30% of the money won from the promotion, he would be blatantly stealing.

My options are to either take what he gives me or demand 50% of what he thinks he might have won on the promo. Either way, I probably won’t invest in this player again, and I’ll watch him carefully in the future for signs that he might be stealing.

Non-monetary Theft

Thieves can steal more than just money and chips. In a game where information is king, stealing information can be even more devastating than stealing money.

For example, suppose the team keeps a list of sloppy dealers who give better than normal penetration. A teammate who shares that list (or part of that list) with players outside of the team is stealing.

Suppose I find a juicy promotion and tell a teammate about it. That teammate then tells a third player about the promotion. My teammate is stealing from me. I may show up to play the promo and find that all the seats are taken by the third player and his friends. Even if there are plenty of seats, I potentially could have sold the information about the promo to that third player.

Suppose I develop a strategy for beating a new carnival game. I share this strategy with my teammates and we play the game. At some point a teammate leaves the team, and decides to share this strategy with other players. Again, that former teammate is a thief.

It may be difficult to stop this type of thievery. The best that you can do is try to work with honest people. Also, withholding certain information from teammates may be a wise thing to do on occasion. If I find a strong promo in Michigan that lasts for one day, and my teammate is blasting away in Atlantic City, I can only lose by sharing the details of the promo.

Conclusion

Your best defense against the team thief is to be as selective as possible when choosing people to work with. Avoid situations that make it easier for the thief to operate. Try to be as clear as possible about which activities are included in the team’s results. Always be extremely clear when it comes to agreeing on the amount of compensation for each team member. Finally, just because you suspect someone of stealing from you doesn’t mean that he is. And just because you don’t suspect him doesn’t mean that he isn’t. ♠

The Non-Random Shuffle Nonsense

Off TARGET
by Arnold Snyder

Break the Dealer
by Arnold Snyder

Jerry Patterson Responds
by Jerry Patterson

Snyder Responds to Patterson’s Response
by Arnold Snyder

New Blackjack, Same Old Baloney
by Arnold Snyder

BJ Systems Based on Non-Random Shuffles
by Arnold Snyder

McDowell’s Blackjack Ace Prediction Fiasco

Fundamental Mistakes in McDowell’s Blackjack Ace Prediction
by Arnold Snyder

More Mistakes in McDowell’s Blackjack Ace Prediction
by ETFan

False Key Errors in McDowell’s Blackjack Ace Prediction
by Radar O’Reilly

Actual Probability of False Keys in McDowell’s Blackjack Ace Prediction
by S. Yama

Errata in McDowell’s Errata Sheet
by Arnold Snyder

Endorsement Retracted
by Steve Forte

Regarding McDowell’s Blackjack Ace Prediction
letter from Bill Zender

Leonard Benson’s “Power Numbers” System

John Leib Challenges Leonard Benson
by Arnold Snyder and John Leib

Power Numbers Blackjack (reviewed)
by John Leib

Classic Progressive Betting Systems

The Cancellation System
by Arnold Snyder

The Famous Martingale System
by Arnold Snyder

Oscar’s System
by Arnold Snyder

The Triplet System
by Arnold Snyder

More Nutty Systems

Dubey’s No Need to Count System
by Arnold Snyder

The Pseudo-Tournament System
by Arnold Snyder

Psychic Gambling Systems
by Arnold Snyder

Crazy Ripoff Schemes

The Coin Flip Scam That Fooled Uston
by Dunbar

Telephone Gambling Scams
by Arnold Snyder

Watch Out for Rolex Hookers
by Raymond X.

Red Flag Warnings

Beware the Non-Disclosure Agreement
by Arnold Snyder

Comic Book Blackjack Systems
by Arnold Snyder

I Saw It with My Own Eyes
by Arnold Snyder

One Million Roulette Experts
by Arnold Snyder

The History of Blackjack
by Arnold Snyder

The First Counters
by Russell T. Barnhart

The Four Horsemen of Blackjack
by Arnold Snyder

An Appreciation of Julian Braun
by Peter Ruchman

System Smitty
by Arnold Snyder

In Memory of Ken Uston
by Arnold Snyder

Did Jess Marcum Invent Card Counting?
by Allan Schaffer, PhD.

The Blackjack Ball
by Mark Truman

Can you Read the Dealer?
by Steve Forte

Stalking the Illusive Tell
by Dog-Ass Johnny

Fake ID for Card Counters
by Arnold Snyder

The Over/Under Side Bet Is Spreading Fast!
by Arnold Snyder

Notes from the Blackjack Underground
by G. K. Schroeder

Cheating Blackjack Dealers in Puerto Rico
by Harry J. McCardle

Phast Phun in Phoenix
by Arnold Snyder

Las Vegas Casino Surveillance Report Card 2005
by the Blackjack Forum Online Moderators

Russian Casinos and Blackjack, Poker, Caribbean Stud, Lotteries, and Other Opportunities for Professional Gamblers

by Garry Baldie
(From Blackjack Forum XXI #4, Winter 2001/02)
© Blackjack Forum 2002

Hi all.

A little about blackjack in Russia first. This is a blackjack magazine, isn’t it?

Every casino in Moscow offers blackjack and many are good for card counters—at least until you’re blacklisted. As always, the standard rules are 6 deck, dealer stands on soft 17, double on any two cards, double after splits, resplit pairs, resplit aces (1 card on each), early surrender, European no hole card (dealer takes all).

Five casinos offer the triple rule on blackjack games (Golden Palace, Golden Palace Weekend, Crystal, Studio, and Imperia), which means you can triple down after doubling down. Some casinos offer bonuses for hands like 678 and 777 (Horseshoe, Alexander Blok, and Izmaylovo). Some casinos have early surrender against 10 only (Cosmos, Mizar, Metropol, Izmaylovo, Infant, Alexander Blok, Beijing In Moscow). Some offer loss rebates (Royal, Ambassador, Grand Prix, and Casablanca).

What’s the news? The Golden Palace group bought Imperia. Not only they have they added the triple rule but the same blacklist of card counters as the Golden Palace.

Also, the new casino SOL was opened. They offered triple during their first month but soon killed it and introduced two Double Exposure Tables (blackjacks pay 1:1, no surrender, dealer wins ties, DOA, DAS, NRS).

Casino Oasis changed its name to the Lilit but no change in the rules. Crystal killed penetration — 50% on all blackjack tables now. Izmaylovo pays 2:1 for suited blackjacks. Vinso Grand adds 25% to your blackjack payoff during 2 lucky hours per day. Shangri La has unlimited insurance up to ½ table max.

During the next few weeks the new casino Pharaoh will open. No information about blackjack rules. It looks like Cosmos has some financial interest in this casino. In February Golden Mine should be open instead of the temporarily closed Treasure Island.

The general trend in Moscow blackjack for card counters does not look well. Penetration gets worse and the heat keeps going up. More and more casinos are getting paranoid. Information between casinos is circulated more frequently. More and more card counters are sticking with Caribbean Stud due to lesser heat.

History of Casino Play in Russia

Before I talk about opportunities in poker and some other games, here is a brief history of gambling in general and advantage play in the territory of former Soviet Union.

As you may know, after the Socialist Revolution and until “perestroyka,” all gambling in the USSR was prohibited by law. The only exception was state lotteries (with a tremendous state advantage). Despite these prohibitions, home card games and such games as backgammon, checkers and chess were quite popular. By the way, maybe it’s because of this that Russian chess players are so strong — all the people had nothing to play except chess. : – ))

Durak and Preference

The most popular home game in Russia was and still is not poker, like in US, but the game called “durak,” which translates as “the fool.” This game is played with a deck of 36 cards and has very simple rules. Perhaps every Russian citizen of the age of 7 and higher knows how to play this game.

Good play at durak requires a lot of memory and mental calculations. There are even championships here in this game now. “The fool” is considered by the public opinion as a sucker game. But if you play seriously there is a lot of work and a lot of potential money won due to a lot of bad players through all the country. The last championship was won by Partizan — a famous person and professional player with phenomenal memory. You know, one of those guys who can multiply 7-digit numbers within seconds in his head…

Another most popular card game is called “Preference,” and is considered by public opinion more elite, for intelligence. It has quite complex rules and is hard to master. Usually one starts to learn Preference at high school or university. Almost all students know the rules and many know how to play at a medium-to-high level. This game, like poker, should be played for money only (The Fool is a different type of the game — it’s a family game for interest until you play it professionally). There are a lot of pro level Preference players.

There are a few other card games that Russians like to play too. I don’t want to go into details.

So here was the picture: to gamble was not legal, but all the country in fact did play various games, sometimes betting big money. This led to a lot of cheating. Decades of hidden gambling created thousands of scams, tricks and cheats.

There were so many suckers around you didn’t need to be a sleight-of-the hand wizard. It was enough to master a couple of the simplest tricks such as false cutting to make a decent living on this. But anyway there were and still exist true professional high-class cheaters playing high stakes. So I urge all who wish to play home games in Russia to be very cautious. Marked cards, electronic devices, false shuffles, and coolers — you never know what you may encounter.

So now come the casinos. After perestroyka casino gambling was legalized and A LOT of casinos were opened. In 1991 there was 72 casinos in Moscow alone. Most of them were owned by the mob. This led to crime too. Cheating at casinos, “no-pay” cases and money laundering were widespread. Those were very unstable years. And there were really great rules!

Now the situation is far better. You won’t find cheating casinos in Moscow now. There were two “no-pay” cases last year at small casinos. The situation outside Moscow, however, especially in small local casinos, is unclear. They all have a very small reserve fund and winning big can cause a “no-pay” incident. There are about 40 casinos in the capitol and about 550-570 in total on the former USSR territory.

The most popular casino game here is roulette. I think it goes back to Dostoevsky and his description in precise detail life of the gambling-addict character in The Gambler. Roulette here is always single-zero. And theoretically you can find very old and biased wheels in small towns.

Poker in Russia

Poker. Let’s talk first about stud poker. This game grows in popularity. The most common type is 5-Card Draw with joker. This game is extremely popular and can be very profitable if you know your opponents. I think that Crazy Mike Caro could make a decent living here. 5-Card Draw is the only poker you will see played at home games, outside casinos. Home games are always limit and stakes depend on the players. Only in casinos do there exist pot-limit games and no-limit is played in tournaments only.

Other variants of poker you can find in only very few casinos here. Cosmos is the most known place. The most popular game there is pot-limit Hold’em with a $5 ante. There are 7-Card Stud and Omaha too. Such games as Lowball or Hi-Lo Split are extremely rare, even in tournaments. Casinos Crown and Shangri La usually offer 5-Card Draw or 7-Card Stud, rarely Omaha or Hold’em. There is a new poker room at the new SOL casino but I don’t know about the game.

Talking about the skill level of players, I can say that the average level is very low but there do exist a few pro level players. Usually they play at Cosmos.

Caribbean Poker in Russia

Caribbean poker. Yes, I know that this game is not very popular in the US. But it’s not the same in Russia. I think it’s the most popular casino card game here. That’s because the rules of this game differ greatly from international standards. In fact, some types of this game can be very advantageous.

Here is the most common set of rules: 52-cards deck, 6 boxes on the table. You can play 2 boxes (that means you can see your cards on the second box only after you make your decision on the first). You can change 1 or 2 cards after you see your hand. It costs your ante. Minimal game is Ace, King. If you think a little you will find that second box has an advantage over the house!

And here is the next step: Your friend is sitting on the next two boxes and you are signaling your cards. Several teams here use such a ploy with great success. And I’ve not described the most advantageous rules! There exist 6-cards Caribbean poker, sometimes you can change all your five cards for one ante, sometimes you can FORCE the dealer to change his card for one ante, etc., etc., etc. All these rules can lead to a great advantage, especially with team play. The only minus is that this game is very slow.

Russian Lotteries

Lotteries. Yes, lotteries! These also can be profitable here. ANY casino here offers some lottery tickets. Prizes vary from $5000 and up to $500,000 (no kidding!).

If you’re a frequent customer you can collect A LOT of those tickets and have nice odds in these lotteries. If you’re a hardcore casino visitor and so lucky that you win every casino lottery during a week in Moscow you can find yourself richer by about 5-7 brand new cars and about $100,000 in cash. So, theoretically using a large team of players at one casino can give you nice chances to win at lotteries.

Other games besides blackjack in casinos in Russia. Baccarat and Craps are very unpopular, a couple of tables for all of Moscow. One Pai Gow table, one Wheel Of Fortune, one SicBo table. Nothing spectacular and almost no action.

Luck,
Garry Baldie ♠

If you’re going to be traveling to play blackjack, see Stanford Wong’s Basic Blackjack for optimal basic strategy for any of the great rule sets you may encounter around the world. Wong’s Professional Blackjack contains the index numbers for card counters for unusual rule sets.